Are Republic women okay? Let me help Rebecca Traister out here: No. (New York mag)
Oh huh Trump’s child-molester “spiritual advisor” has resigned from his church. (Wonkette / twitter)
You haven’t been reading the FTC’s blog offering guidance on how not to get on the wrong side of (newly muscular, heart eyes emoji!) FTC? A sample!
Don’t misrepresent what these services are or can do. Your therapy bots aren’t licensed psychologists, your AI girlfriends are neither girls nor friends, your griefbots have no soul, and your AI copilots are not gods. We’ve warned companies about making false or unsubstantiated claims about AI or algorithms. And we’ve followed up with action, including recent cases against WealthPress, DK Automation, Automators AI, and CRI Genetics. We’ve also repeatedly advised companies – with reference to past cases – not to use automated tools to mislead people about what they’re seeing, hearing, or reading.
I saw someone describe this blog post on avoiding falsely advertising your AI as “a banger,” and that person wasn’t wrong! But more importantly, the FTC is now taking action against companies abusing the public trust, and that’s gotta be the first time in what, ever? (FTC)
Scams, you got ‘em! This Missouri grandmother/conwoman who tried to steal Graceland — Graceland! — and then blame Nigeria. Some damn good internet shoe leather, Brandy Zadrozny and Jon Schuppe! (NBC News)
Musical interlude!
Some California law enforcement shifting interrogation tactics after that particularly brutal Fontana one that forced the guy to confess to killing his dad (who was still entirely alive and unharmed, just off having a walkabout) so they wouldn’t kill his dog. o.O (OC Register)
Speaking of! This lady will be released after 43 years in prison for a murder a cop (seemingly!) did. So. (CBS News)
This poor brave whistleblower Eithan Haim being attacked just for leaking trans children’s private medical records to Chris Rufo. Fuck that guy. Both that guys. (Assigned Media)
And Florida is just attacking this little girl and her mom, who may lose her school district job, because the girl is trans and played volleyball. These are bad people!!! (Yahoo)
Alex Jones doing a fraud on the bankruptcy court? That can’t be right. (Wired)
Petty crazy lady Vermont Republican “apologized” after pouring water into her Democratic colleague’s work bag for months, after lying she didn’t know whose bag it was and some other lies. (Guardian)
This is crazy how long this power line hooking up renewable energy projects with the people who need the electricity has taken — twenty years so far, to get the permits, despite its being “America’s most important clean energy project” — just so we can have cleaner air, less childhood asthma, and oh stop broiling to death. Hooooo boy. Alllllmost there! (Heatmap News)
The IRS is closing ANOTHER wealthy tax cheat loophole? In this economy? (Cheddar)
This is good, about a series of movies I will never ever ever see (the Predator franchise) and what counts as “action hero” and what counts as “Mary Sue.” (Everything Is Horrible)
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Today's hed gif features a Fleisher Studios short, and you can learn a bit about it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/the-tears-of-an-onion
Well dang. I just realized it's only Thursday and not Friday as I thought. Yeah, it takes me a while some days, after the caffeine kicks in to full drive.